Bishop Sean Teal, Visionary

The Remnant Arises!

Gideon leads a remnant. Gideon’s army has 300 uncommon men connected to his vision of victory. These 300 men are going into this battle as believers. They are faced with the natural impossible. They are being called upon to do the unthinkable. They are following Gideon into the unquestionable insurmountable. 300 men are expected to overpower 135,000 well-trained and well-armed soldiers.

These are the soldiers that no one in Israel had dared to fight. For the last seven years Israel has been hiding and running scared. These Midianites and Arabian mercenaries are a military machine. Gideon’s men will be armed with trumpets, clay jars and lamps. The contrast of ability and readiness for the battle is staggering. The contrast leaves this narrative only two options. Gideon and these 300 men will be utterly swept up by the Midianites and will die noble, though foolish deaths or Gideon and these 300 will do the impossible. Either this is foolishness or this is faith.

It is faith. Gideon has a word from God. Gideon will win this battle because Gideon believes the Word of God. Hebrews 11:32 mentions Gideon in Faith’s Hall of Fame. Gideon overcomes the power of the enemy in the midst of darkness after 7 years of defeats. This is the power of faith. This was not a fight just about Gideon’s foes. This was Gideon’s good fight of faith.

We all have a good fight of faith. We all have places in our lives that have defeated us. For some of us it’s been for seven years. Seven is the number of completion. The Holy Spirit tells us “seven years” perhaps to indicate to us that Israel had been completely defeated. Have you been completely defeated? Do you know what it is to have no power over some part of your life that is now starting to take over all of your life ? Have you ever tried and failed? Tried and failed. Tried and failed. Well, if seven years is completion, then it’s time for your defeats to be defeated.

It is your faith in the love, wisdom and power of God that will get you your victory. You know God loves you. You know God has the best plan for your life. You know God has the power to deliver you from anything and anybody. That kind of faith can conquer and more than conquer any devil trying to defeat you.

Gideon subscribed to a strange strategy. In the blackness of the night Gideon divided his 300 men into 3 companies of 100 each. He had them surround the camp of the Midianites. He put a trumpet in every man’s hand with an empty clay jar and lamp within the jar. He then told them, “Look on me and do likewise” (Judges 7:17).

This remnant was given three tools for their victory. 1) Trumpets. 2) Clay Jars. 3) Lamps. These three tools signify that kind of remnant that God is raising in these last days. The end-time remnant will be distinguished by the weapons of our warfare. II Corinthians 10: 4, “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds” . We will need trumpets, pitchers and lamps to fight the good fight of faith.

The trumpets signify the boldness we must have in declaring and proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There are modern Midianites that can only be defeated by the preaching of the simple Gospel. The remnant God is choosing and preparing are a people that will blow the trumpet. When the spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon in Judges 6:34 the first thing He did was blow the trumpet. When the Spirit came upon the early Church in Acts 4:31, it says, “and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spake the Word with boldness”. One of the marks of Spirit-filled remnant people is that they are not afraid to confront the evil of their times. The Midianites weren’t just against Gideon and the 300. They were depressing a nation, a whole generation of God’s people needed to be delivered.

Only a bold remnant will declare the unpopular claims of Christ. It takes boldness to trumpet Jesus as the only possible means of salvation. It takes boldness to trumpet Christ and crucified, resurrected and exalted. It takes boldness to trumpet salvation by grace and faith in Christ. It takes boldness to trumpet Christ as the Judge of all the earth. It takes boldness to trumpet the reality of eternity – heaven and hell. We need trumpets. We need boldness.

We need pitchers, clay jars. We need the brokenness of believers. The clay jars were for one reason. They were to be broken. When the battle was over there will still be trumpets and lamps, but the vessels of clay would be broken left on the battlefield. Our faith must always be up for being broken. Faith is not so fragile that it can’t survive brokenness.

Brokenness protects you from bitterness. People that refuse to be broken during the battle are bitter people. They spend their lives regretting everything they have been through. They still talk about old battles as if they happened yesterday. They are still carrying around the broken pieces that they picked up from their last battle.

There are battles God sends us into for the express purpose of being broken. We have to be broken or we will try to carry our old selves into a new battle. There are some battles behind you that when you look back at you should praise God for because it was in that battle that you left some broken and shattered parts of your life behind you.

Brokenness is living with the knowledge that it’s all about him and never about you. You had to be broken so that what God has put you can finally shine.

So we need the lamps. The lamps are a type of the brilliance that lies within you. Your brilliance is more than your erudition and education. Your brilliance is more than your beauty and your charm. Your brilliance is more than your charisma and attractiveness. Your brilliance is the excellency of God’s power at work in you. Your brilliancy is the glory of God. When you finish this battle and complete this brokenness the brilliance of God in you is going to shine out of you as never before. God’s best in you is about to be seen, not just by others, but first by you. For those of you who know that you have not peaked in your potential. There is more and better in you and you are about to see it shine.

When the battle began in the blackness of the night all the enemy heard was an explosion of sound, light and movement. I have an announcement for every devil that thinks they have defeated the people of God. I hear the sound of trumpets, I hear the power of brokenness and I see an army arising with the glory of God within them. This remnant army is marked by boldness, brokenness and the brilliance of God.

This is the time to finally settle the matter. The battle belongs to God and the victory is ours!